Antichamber: An Overnight Success, Seven Years In The Making
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend it as an honest account of the emotional toll and persistence of long indie game development.
What it is
Alexander Bruce's GDC talk on making Antichamber, from working alone in a bedroom to winning acclaim at the IGF. It focuses on the psychological challenge of seven years of solo development.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends scrollaway · 2016-01 · on “Why I Write Games in C”
You'd be surprised. There's a GDC talk about Antichamber from a couple years ago (I really recommend watching it) which explains the amount of time that was invested into the game. Antichamber was a 7 year long hack on Unreal Engine, it's really not a drop-in game. [this video]
Recommends Cpoll · 2017-04 · on “In the Videogame Industry, Hiring People Is a Last Resort”
No, they are exactly the same. It's hard to find a GDC talk on Youtube where the creator of a game doesn't get teared up talking about the despair and elation they felt slaving over their game for four years. Try this one: [this video] I also firmly believe there are games that won't be forgotten in a few decades.
Cites abetusk · 2024-03 · on “How do you make an addictive video game?”
Ultimately pretty shallow. This is more an exploration of how it feels to make a "sticky" game rather than how to actually make a sticky game. I certainly don't have any expertise or deep insight but I will say that one of the best videos I've seen on this is "The art of screenshake" by J. Nijman of Vlambeer [0]. There, he walks through what's a very basic 2d sidescroller shooter and adds in effects until it looks like an actual fun game. The idea being that layering feedback and effects so that every aspect of the game becomes more fun to play. It sounds like this podcast was focusing more on Hearthstone and Marvel Snap, both games which I haven't played but are more strategy and luck orien